Genealogy Research Online

Genealogy Research Online: The Source Hound’s Guide to Online Genealogy

Learn to master genealogy research online like the professionals do. This is a beginner’s article designed to help you start organizing, strategizing, and masterminding your genealogy research. In this article I’m going to share with you my Source Hound Beginner’s Guide to Professional Genealogy Research Online. In this post I am focusing exclusively on genealogy

Genealogy Research Online: The Source Hound’s Guide to Online Genealogy Read the full story →

A man in a suit and glasses points toward a digital tablet displaying an interactive historical land map, with gold title text reading "US Genealogy Land Patent Maps: Interactive County Maps for Genealogy" at the top and the URL "familyhistoryfoundation.com" at the bottom.

US Genealogy Land Patent Maps: 5 Interactive Tools | County Maps for Genealogy

The genealogy land patent maps housed on the US Government’s General Land Office (GLO) can be searched using several interactive tools. Using these tools, I will show you how to find land records, deeds, surveys, and attach them to your Ancestry tree. This post is a follow up to the introductory US Genealogy Land Patents:

US Genealogy Land Patent Maps: 5 Interactive Tools | County Maps for Genealogy Read the full story →

coat of arms on a field of terms describing them. Coat of Arms Colors: Decoding the 7 Hidden Meanings of Heroic Heraldic Tinctures-featured

Coat of Arms Colors in Genealogy: What Every Heraldic Color Means

Coat of arms colors are often overlooked as just colors, big mistake. The colors used on various coats of arms actually contain hidden meanings with respect to ideals such as “strength,” “valor,” “courage,” and so forth. They also are pertinent to your genealogy. Whether you have stumbled upon a vibrant painting in an antique shop

Coat of Arms Colors in Genealogy: What Every Heraldic Color Means Read the full story →

Better Ancestry alternative. better-site-than-ancestry-featured

Ancestry vs FamilySearch: 2026 Comparison, Is FamilySearch the Best Ancestry alternative?

Let’s be honest: Ancestry.com is the commercial titan of online genealogy, but rising subscription costs have many researchers asking how it stacks up against FamilySearch.org for their 2026 genealogy goals as an Ancestry alternative. Whether you are tired of hitting paywalls on basic census rolls or simply want to stretch your research budget, understanding the

Ancestry vs FamilySearch: 2026 Comparison, Is FamilySearch the Best Ancestry alternative? Read the full story →

Infographic titled "HOW TO FIND BIRTH PARENTS: STEP-BY-STEP ADOPTEE GUIDE" illustrating a numbered 5-step research roadmap leading to a silhouetted biological family framed in light. Features icons for legal court records, paper trails, a central navigation compass, DNA test kits, match clustering, mirror trees, and genetic evidence, with the website URL familyhistoryfoundation.com centered at the bottom.

How to Find Birth Parents: Your Adoptive Genealogy Guide

If you want to know how to find birth parents, combining legal documentary evidence with modern genetic genealogy provides a clear, actionable roadmap. For millions of adoptees, Non-Paternal Events (NPEs), and individuals with unknown parentage, uncovering biological roots satisfies a deep human need for personal identity, ancestral heritage, and medical history. While historical adoption laws

How to Find Birth Parents: Your Adoptive Genealogy Guide Read the full story →

Preserve Oral History Recordings. An infographic illustrates a method for preserving oral history. The title at the top, in large dark green letters, reads "HOW TO PRESERVE, TRANSCRIBE, AND SHARE ORAL HISTORY RECORDINGS:" followed by the subtitle "A GENEALOGIST’S ARCHIVAL WORKFLOW" in gold. Below this, four distinct illustrated scenes show the process with curved arrows indicating flow. The first scene features a gold vintage-style microphone and a modern smartphone with wave lines indicating recording sound, below which is a smaller lapel microphone. An arrow points to an open book with pages filled with musical notation, an 'A' on the left, and handwritten notes on the right being written by a pen with a feather quill. The third illustration shows a stylized shield with a lock, and the final image depicts a cloud with a small chain, below which is a green machine labeled with gold components and a gold gear, with small roots growing out of the base, and small icons representing people connected to it by lines, indicating connections. Below these three, smaller icons also depict headphones, a stylus writing on a screen, and a profile of a person. The overall background is cream-colored with a simple border, and the infographic is contained within a gold line frame. At the bottom, a solid dark green banner with white text reads "FAMILYHISTORYFOUNDATION.COM".

Preserve Oral History Recordings: The Source Hound Genealogist’s Archival Workflow

When you take the time to preserve oral history recordings, you are protecting the single most irreplaceable asset in your entire family tree. You set the room, asked open-ended questions, listened patiently through long silences, and captured memories in your relative’s exact voice. 🎙️ But here is a hard truth that many family historians learn

Preserve Oral History Recordings: The Source Hound Genealogist’s Archival Workflow Read the full story →

1:1 featured graphic for a blog post titled "Virginia Colony History: Jamestown, Tobacco, and Cavaliers." The image depicts three 1607 English ships—the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery—sailing toward the lush green shoreline of Virginia under a bright, glowing sun. A circular pop-out speech bubble shows a jubilant captain in 17th-century attire pointing enthusiastically toward land. A scroll banner at the bottom displays the website URL https://familyhistoryfoundation.com.

Virginia Colony History: Charters, Conflict, and Tracing Colonial Lines (1607–1776)

Virginia Colony history forms the foundational narrative of English colonization in North America, spanning nearly 170 years from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Established as a joint-stock business venture by the Virginia Company of London, the colony evolved through catastrophic drought, conflicts with the

Virginia Colony History: Charters, Conflict, and Tracing Colonial Lines (1607–1776) Read the full story →

Scroll to Top